NPA admits killing Sorsogon policeman

By Paulo DS. Papa

The New People’s Army (NPA) in Sorsogon admitted responsibility in attacking the headquarter of a police mobile company in Pilar town, Sorsogon that killed a police officer.

A police report said that at around 7:00 PM on Feb. 28, in Barangay Esperanza, an undetermined number of communist rebels fired at the PNP’s Regional Mobile Force Battalion 504th Maneuver Company headquarters in Pilar town. A policeman identified as Corporal Ryan M. Atos was killed during firefight that lasted for 15 minutes.

Samuel Guerrero, spokesperson of NPA Celso Minguez Command in Sorsogon, said the attack was a revolutionary response to the illegal arrest starting 2020 up to the present of some 24 Sorsoganons who were suspected as NPA members.

Guerrero said that during the same period, government forces planted guns and explosives as evidence against nine other Sorsoganons and orchestrated six armed encounters. He added that one of which was the encounter in Barangay Dolos in Bulan town that killed five farmers in May 8, 2020.

“Hindi namin palalampasin ang anumang pagkakataon para parusahan ang pasistang PNP at AFP na nanggigipit at nandarahas sa walang kalaban-labang mga sibilyan sa probinsya,” Guerrero said.

To recall, Maj. Gen. Fernando Trinidad, during his term as the commander of the 9th Infantry Division (9ID), Philippine Army, disclosed that the incident in Barangay Dolos, in Bulan, Sorsogon was a legitimate joint police and army operation.

Trinidad said government forces was there to serve a warrant of arrest to a certain Golima, a suspected NPA member facing murder charges.

The operation resulted in the death of five NPA rebels, namely: Jaime Tañada alias Ame, 54; Reymond “Monding” Tañada, 39; Jerry “Ben” Palanca, 31; Jerick Buno, 30; and Roberto “Furgoso” Villafuerte, 21.